Episode 42: Laughter with guest Lynda Del Grande

Episode 42: Laughter with guest Lynda Del Grande

Laughter is good for your health

Laughter has been regarded as beneficial for human health for a long time. In addition to promoting cognitive and physical health, humour and laughter can protect against disease, decrease stress, help to improve quality of life, and even boost your immune system.

The appreciation of humour requires a wide variety of brain circuits including – for example, attention, working memory, and flexible thinking.

In addition, laughter can help reduce stress.

For some, the holidays can be a little bit stressful, and consistent stress can damage your brain and even negatively impact your learning and memory. But, laughter has been shown to reduce stress by decreasing the hormone cortisol (stress hormone). Research has also linked laughter and humour to increases in learning abilities and memory performance.

So, laughter is a powerful tool that can have a tremendous impact on how your brain functions.

About Lynda Del Grande

Lynda Del Grande was a teacher in junior high and high school for the Toronto School Board before retiring in 2000. Earlier on in her professional career, the board was very innovative, so Lynda was given opportunities to create programs that were quite new at the time. This set the stage for developing a new program at Ryerson called “Caring Clown”.

In the mid-80s, a teaching exchange in San Francisco, California, led to the start of her creative journey in studying improv, acting and clowning. Specifically, when she was on exchange, she got invited to go to a class called Spontaneity One (which turned out to be improv). Lynda just loved it. It was new, challenging, and very exciting. After coming home, she tried to find more improv classes and stumbled across a clown workshop. It was the weirdest and most challenging thing she has ever done. There was something about it that really appealed to her. Lynda liked clowning better than improv, because she didn't have to think so quickly on her feet.

Lynda also completed a master’s degree in adult education, and a certificate in Life Coaching. She also got certified as a laughter yoga instructor.

Laughter Yoga

The whole idea of laughter yoga came about from a doctor in India – Dr. Kataria (a physician). Dr. Kataria’s wife taught yoga, so they created “laughter yoga,” which incorporates components of stretching and breathing, along with laughter.

Dr. Kataria also developed a series of exercises called “Laughter for No Reason”. Lynda took one of his workshops a number of years ago and found it quite eye-opening. In fact, she integrates some of the concepts into her current teaching, because there's lots of evidence that shows the therapeutic, social and psychological benefits of laughter.

Caring Clown Program

After volunteering for a few years as a Caring Clown in a local long-term care home, in 2009, Lynda was asked to create a curriculum for a Caring Clown program. The “Caring Clown” program is offered at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education. This program includes volunteering in City of Toronto long-term care homes to bring joy and laughter to residents with moderate to advanced stages of dementia.

Participants & Curriculum

The Caring Clown program is for adults aged 50 and over. It is for people who want to bring joy, laughter and fun to the lives of long-term care residents.

The course consists of weekly 3-hour classes that run from mid-November to the end of April. In June, they have a wonderful graduation celebration where the students get a certificate of completion.

There are three separate elements of the Caring Clown program. In the first course (Caring Clown 1), students learn basic clowning techniques and gain an understanding of what “being a clown” really means. Since the course is geared towards teaching clowning in the context of long-term care homes, there is a focus on:

  • Playfulness

  • Presence

  • Vulnerability

In the second course (Caring Clown 2), students continue to learn their clowning skills, but there is more of a focus on therapeutic aspects of clowning. So, while the clowning students are not learning to be therapists, what they do is very therapeutic:

  • They get people to move

  • They get people to dance

  • They get people to sing

  • They bring out the resident’s playful side

Other topics covered in the Caring Clown program:

  • Information about aging and dementia

  • The importance of laughter and humour

In the classes they also do a lot of laughing. That's a big part of the course.

In addition, students are given the opportunity to develop their personal clown, which means picking a name and a costume. Lynda wants everybody to understand that Caring Clowns don't look like your typical parade clown. They don't wear the clown costumes that you might be familiar with. They wear real clothes. Some people use clothes from their closet, and some choose to shop at thrift shops. They make it real.

In the third part of the course (Caring Clown 3), students complete a practicum to gain experience being a clown in the context of a long-term care home. During the practicum, students gain clowning experience in three separate long-term care homes. Lynda goes out to supervise them and also give them feedback. In addition, they complete self-evaluations and get feedback from their peers.

As you can see, the Caring Clown program is quite involved and it is a substantial commitment for the year.

Anecdotal stories from the Caring Clown Program

Everything that is taught in the Caring Clown program is resident-focused and aligned with their energy. Lynda’s students learn how to clown in a way that's very personal and a way that changes based on how the resident is feeling. A resident might be very responsive one time and then the next time they go in, they're not so responsive. The clowning that is taught is very spontaneous and very resident-centered.

Engaging and interacting with someone with dementia is not always going to look the same, and it is different than interacting with someone who's cognitively intact. Even though the interaction is different, it still matters.

The power of music

People living with mid- to late-stage dementia often remember the beat and lyrics to their favourite songs. Lynda has found that when she and her clowns start singing a song to a resident, they often start mouthing the words or tapping their toes. To Lynda, it is pure magic. The important thing is to respect the residents, even in spite of their inability to communicate verbally. They're still adults, and they have lived very full lives.

Conclusion

The Caring Clown Program at Ryerson University's Chang School of Continuing Education brings joy and laughter to residents in long-term care homes. Note – the Caring Clown program is not appropriate for anyone who is out of town for months at a time. If you’re going to be away for one or two weeks, that's not a problem. But if you're going to be away all of January and February, that doesn't work. The program is for people who are either retired or semi-retired. The classes are offered on Thursday mornings, and that's when you will do your clowning too.

To learn more about the Caring Clown program at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education: